Hardy recently joined the Sherdog Radio Network’s “Savage Dog Show”
to discuss Guida, fighting as entertainment, his own place in the
UFC and more.

Hardy on Guida’s performance against Maynard: “The thing is,
Clay went in there to do a job and he did his job. Greg Jackson’s
also got a job to do, which is to -- I think Kenny
Florian stated it quite well -- it’s to make sure his fighter
gets in there and wins. I agree with that, but on the flip side, it
really comes down to the definition of what fighting is, and
running away from somebody and playing tag and scoring points is
not a fight to me, not really. It changes the face of the
sport.

On why fans watch MMA: People tune in, first and foremost,
to be entertained. There’s only a small percentage of MMA fans that
are really interested in where people fall in the rankings. They
just want to see a tear-up. They want to see somebody get punched
in the face and fall over. You can hear it when the fight’s going
on, that the crowd are booing. People don’t want to see one person
running away. You can’t have a fight unless two fighters show up.
Unfortunately on that show, on that fight, Gray
Maynard was the only one who came ready for a fight.”

On Guida’s past performances and why some fighters might not
engage: “We’ve all seen him fight. We saw his fight against
[Diego] Sanchez and all those other crazy ones where they were
back-and-forth wars. He’s got a great pace and he’s a fantastic
fighter. So really, for me, that showed that he made the choice of
going in there and fighting that way. And whether that was down to
his coaches convincing him or what, I don’t know, but I do think a
lot of the responsibility is on the fighter.

“But at the same time, I think pay scale could be an issue as well.
I think that there could be a way of paying people so there’s not a
massive amount of money resting on winning and losing. I mean, 50
percent of purse pretty much is a win bonus for most people. If you
win the fight, you get double the money. For a lot of people,
double the money is what they need in order to cover their training
camps. It’s really difficult. We need a little bit more money
turning towards the fighters and we need the fighters with a bit
more of an aggressive work ethic.”

On his own style of fighting and why he wasn’t cut after four
straight losses: “The UFC realizes that fans are paying for
tickets to be entertained. People aren’t sitting their with
scorecards and stuff and making sure that we’re getting the right
decisions so the right person in the rankings is going to move up.
The UFC wants fighters that are going to sell tickets and that are
going to entertain the fans and sometimes save the show from those
kinds of fights where we are looking for a number one contender … .
We need a balance of fights that you know are going to be good and
fights that are going to determine who’s the best in the world.
Fortunately, after I fell out of the
who’s-the-best-fighter-in-the-world category, I fell into the
always-entertaining-fights category.

“… In comparison to a lot of guys, I’m not difficult to deal with.
I always show up. I always do what I’m supposed to do, even if it’s
not always winning. I’m always going to show up and give it
everything I’ve got. I just think the UFC respected that, and I
appreciate the opportunities. And the other thing is, I think they
look to the people that I’ve lost to and realized that I’ve not
exactly had the easiest of runs. I got the world champion, the
interim champion and then a guy who can’t even make middleweight
anymore.”

NEW YORK – Chris Weidman has been a career-long advocate of punishing steroid and banned substance users to the harshest degree no matter the circumstances around a test failure. He doesn’t feel any read news >>

Ahead of UFC 205, UFC Fight Pass analyst Dan Hardy and broadcast partner John Gooden break down the first title fight on the card, as well as the key middleweight contenders fight before it, as part read news >>

To the very end of the UFC 205 promotional period, Conor McGregor and Eddie Alvarez took every possible opportunity to get under the other's skin. The weigh-ins closed with a staredown between the UFread news >>

The UFC makes it New York City debut tonight with UFC 205, and the star-studded card features three title fights and a host of other notable bouts. Here’s how to watch.Filed under: News, UFCread news >>

NEW YORK – Saturday’s UFC 205 event drew an announced attendance of 20,427 and a live gate of $17.7, which shattered the UFC’s previous live gate record and set a new venue record for Madison Square read news >>